z-logo
open-access-imgOpen Access
Hypothetical Comparison in Turkish
Author(s) -
Utku Türk,
Ömer Demirok
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the workshop on turkic and languages in contact with turkic
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2641-3485
DOI - 10.3765/ptu.v6i1.5054
Subject(s) - turkish , formalism (music) , semantics (computer science) , mathematics , degree (music) , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , physics , art , musical , acoustics , visual arts , programming language
In this paper, we present a preliminary investigation of the complex formative -mışcasına in Turkish, used for hypothetical comparison. We observe that -mışcasına differs from its counterparts in previously studied hypothetical comparison constructions in one key aspect: It can naturally target non-eventive nominal predicates. Furthermore, we find that -mışcasına is primarily licensed in linguistic contexts that make a gradable property available. Building on these initial empirical observations, we flesh out a novel account of hypothetical comparison that makes use of a well-established formalism of degree semantics and semantics of equatives, eschewing the intricate notion of event similarity which is central to previous accounts. In particular, we argue that -mışcasına compares an actual degree against hypothetical degrees, asserting that the actual degree is greater than or equal to any of the hypothetical degrees.

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.
Having issues? You can contact us here